Popping up a deadbait for pike

[mikench]

I've packed the Pike gear, brought out some sprats and joeys from the freezer so I'm ready. The nearest water to hold Pike is still local so I'll give it a go before the "season" ends on 14/03. I have some pop up traces for my legering plan with either a single circle hook trace or a double single hook trace. I have a good few treble traces but will avoid those for the moment until I have caught a few more. I know who to blame John Step if it all goes wrong.

I have a choice of rods and reels and might try 2. I have only ever caught once on this water in 3 visits but it will be different and it's about time I had another go.

 

[john step]

I've packed the Pike gear, brought out some sprats and joeys from the freezer so I'm ready. The nearest water to hold Pike is still local so I'll give it a go before the "season" ends on 14/03. I have some pop up traces for my legering plan with either a single circle hook trace or a double single hook trace. I have a good few treble traces but will avoid those for the moment until I have caught a few more. I know who to blame John Step if it all goes wrong.

I have a choice of rods and reels and might try 2. I have only ever caught once on this water in 3 visits but it will be different and it's about time I had another go.

Best of luck. Its milder now and I believe the fish will be more active. If there is a promontory that commands a view of a larger area and particularly deeper drop off that would be my choice to start.

 

[Mark_Leathwood]

The reason for fishing with the bail arm open is to reduce resistance to a taking fish. This practice dates back to well before baitruners came onto the market but I think most pike anglers still prefer to fish an open bail arm than to use the baitrunner facility on their reel. Eel anglers do too and I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if Zander anglers do the same.

You might argue that using a reel's baitrunner facility provides very little resistance on it's lightest setting and there is a school of thought that pike are not as averse to resistance as other species providing the resistance is constant.

Forgive me if I'm stating the obvious here but the other thing you can do to minimise resistance to a taking fish is to point your rod tip directly at the bait. A lot of anglers who use rod pods for other species don't see to appreciate this.